“We came out too sluggish,” said running back Ray Graham, who was held to 41 yards on 15 carries, his second-lowest output this season. “We just were too flat. Definitely give credit to them, but we stopped ourselves.”

Coach Paul Chryst said he didn’t sense lingering effects from the tough loss to Notre Dame last Saturday.

“UConn outexecuted us,” he said.

Do you know what made the game just that much more upsetting? What kept pissing me off more than anything else?

The goddamned commericals for ND-BC that kept airing. Hyping this game as if it could possibly be an upset. All because Pitt had the game and then lost it — which would have rendered that game to regional interest. Brian Kelly talking over images of ND about how his players know that “every team is going to give them their best shot.” Juxtaposing in my mind how Pitt looked last week, and how they clearly weren’t able to muster the same energy or effort against UConn.

What the UConn football team did to Pittsburgh on Friday night? Utterly inexplicable. Mostly anybody who has seen the Huskies play this year, particularly in the four games prior, figured there would be more of the same. What UConn gave the 33,503 gathered at Rentschler Field was more of what everybody wanted to see all year and some of what they never want to see again.

There aren’t as many stars on offense. But Griffin, at 6-6, 247, the senior tight end is as good as anybody on the team.

That’s why it’s a bit mystifying that [Ryan] Griffin wasn’t targeted more the first half of the season. He caught one pass for 34 yards against UMass. He caught one for 4 yards against NC State and one for 2 yards against Maryland. After three catches against Western Michigan, one for a touchdown, he only caught one again against Buffalo.

That’s seven catches in five games. Granted, fellow tight end John Delahunt also was targeted some. Still, seven catches in five games wasn’t nearly enough for a guy who is capable of making pro money on Sundays.

Griffin had 31 catches as a sophomore in 2010. He caught 33 balls last season for 499 yards and three touchdowns. On the John Mackey Award Watch List, he had just 20 through nine games this year. Granted four of them were for touchdowns, including a 42-yarder against Temple, but we saw in the first half exactly what kind of a pass-catching bear he can be.

UConn needs to feed the bear.

Griffin had six receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown in the first half alone. And then … he finished with six for 84 yards. The only time Griffin was targeted in the second half, Chandler Whitmer overthrew him on what would have been a fourth-quarter touchdown and ended up as an interception by Jarred Holley.

Well, that explains some of it. I guess. UConn’s offensive coordinator Greg DeLeone has been ignoring their best player on offense for the last month to sandbag Pitt in this game. There’s a reason Paul Pasqualoni holds a 13-3 lifetime record against Pitt.

Speaking of mystifying…

/shakes head

/deep sigh

/deep breath

Tino Sunseri…

/ducks

I’ll get this out of the way, first. The O-line reverted to terrible status last night. They were shoved backwards regularly. They gave very little protection. They created no running lanes. It was pathetic.

Now, back to Tino. He was poor, and apparently even worse in person. The entire game, Pitt beat writers were tweeting that he was completely missing, ignoring, not seeing — something — the downfield receivers. Particularly, Devin Street.

Here are the samples:

To clarify, I was wondering why on earth Sunseri refuses to throw it to Street. Dude is getting wide, wide open.

What made Connecticut’s opening 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive even more embarrassing was this: Eight plays gained at least 5 yards. Players were out of position and outside linebacker Eric Williams , who had played so well against Notre Dame, missed a tackle at the line of scrimmage on McCombs’ 12-yard run to the 2.

Fun fact for 2012. Pitt is 0-6 in games where the opposing team scores first.

Whitmer never broke open the game, but was ruthlessly efficient, completing 18 of 24 passes for 196 yards and a touchdown. Griffin had six catches for 84 yards and a score, all in the first half and most on play-action fakes.

Connecticut’s second touchdown came courtesy of a familiar foe for Pitt. Midway through the second quarter, the Huskies forced Pitt to punt from the 40. Huskies returner Nick Williams took the punt 80 yards for a touchdown to put the Huskies up, 17-0.

In 2010, Williams returned a kickoff 95 yards against the Panthers to swing the momentum in Connecticut’s favor and eventually propel the Huskies to a win.

Chryst’s in game calls remain baffling. For example, his surrender at the end of the first half, with two time outs and at mid-field was odd. Sure there was a big sack. But there was enough time to get some points and maybe light a fire under the team.

My wife said this to me last night when it was 24-3 in the second half. “I have never seen such loyalty in a group of people as I see in you and the Pitt Football fans”. There I was, still screaming and yelling and, most of all watching passionately, a football team playing below any level imaginable, talking by phone to my alum pals at the Rent…and it’s been going on for 43 years. What on earth is wrong with all of us?
Why do we care so much about Pitt Football. They, and Steve Pederson, don’t give a damn about us.
What’s wrong with us? How do we keep getting sucked into this trap? If I mustered half the focus and energy on my job that I put into Pitt Football, I would be a millionaire 4x over.

Again, they (Pitt Football) don’t care about us.
Not with the uniforms, the coaches, the stadium, the quality of play, the effort, the hated QB,the schedule…nothing!

I guess we are all clinically obsessed (using my Psych major here). What on earth is wrong with us?

What’s wrong with us? We have this obsession with winning. We don’t get the concept of just “playing one more game with this group of guys”. As fans we have seen many ways to improve performance (like throwing to open receivers). That’s not really important when winning is not a priority.

Can I ask a question? Why ALL the blame on Stevie-P for hiring this dud, and nary a syllable about superbooster Sam A-what’s his face who inserted himself into the mix and literally forced it to happen?

I wasn’t in the room, but from everything I read, PC was SP’s 3rd choice. But after Sammy-A threaened to withhold his donations, Paul Hackett (oops, Chryst) got the gig.

Stevie-P deserves blame for getting himself into this mess by losing all his cache by the botched Mike Heywood hire (going cheap, having no plan after Wanny was broomed out, whatever).

I think maybe, if SP hadn’t blown the Heywood hire, he’dda still had enough horsepower left to not be forced by outsiders to make the PC hire.

Whatever, maybe Chryst gets one year to show his stuff without having to play a D-III QB. But he should be on a very hot seat already for next year.

We have to demand the removal of the Stevie p. he is the one constant element in this collapse.
No fans at gamed, poor coaching hires and the botched dismissal of wanny.
He is destroying the program by death of a thousand cuts. As for uconn and nd plus the other horrible losses over the last 10 years it is hard to believe we still watch and care.
We knew at the cinci game we would lose after the kick return and we knew we would lose last week after the phantom pi call.
It is a curse and the ad owns it. All else has been tried. Get him the f outa here

It’s a bad team with talented players. They will show up for some games – Va Tech and ND – but will also lose interest also. This is what 3 HC’s in 3 years will do. They can’t finish games. They don’t know how to close out games. Some of this is on the coach but a lot is on the situation as well. Sunseri should be the leader on offense – do you really think the players respect him?

I’m still baffled at some of the game time decisions by Chryst. I’ve been saying all season that it’s a learning curve and he’ll begin to get a feel … but he keeps making the same mistakes which has me concerned that he’s not learning. VERY frustrating.

I’m not a fan of the defense. I don’t like the “bend but don’t break style”. It leads to long drives and a tired defense late in the game.

I’m still not throwing in the towel though. Wanny’s first two seasons were a nightmare and Chyrst has a lot more upside and a better understanding of the college game. Once he starts getting his players in leadership position, hopefully things will change.

Things could turn around at some time in the future. But there is no reason for optimism in sight. We have an administration that is incompetent when it comes to football, a horrible Athletic Director, horrible coaches and lazy, gutless players.

This season is already wasted, so it’s important that we lose the last two (probably) games Tino the Magnificent’s regime to help set a context, to explain this period in history for future generations.

Right now, Tino the Coach-Killer’s record is 18-18(8-5 in 2010, 6-7 in 2011, and 4-6 so far this year). If he wins out (snicker) or splits, thus to end with a winning or .500 record, then years from now people will think that we who survived this horrible period in Pitt football are just griping curmudgeons when we curse the very mention of #12’s name.

But if Boy Wonder can continue his normal play for just two more games, those same people will instead pity us, ask why the [heck] the program played a 3-year loser at the game’s most important position?? And then we’ll have the chance to tell our story: we have no idea either!

In my own case I had the great good fortune to have my undergraduate and graduate experiences coincide with the Dorsett and Marino years respectively. I was very lucky. I was in the Dome on January 1, 1977. What a thrill.

I guess somewhere deep in my hippocampus I think this will happen again, but of course the reasoning centers of my brain know that it won’t.

I just wish it was better than it is. I know another national championship is not realistic but I just wish being a Pitt fan wasn’t so… embarrassing.

I do get somewhat pissed off at the University of Pittsburgh when it seems that they just don’t care about this.

The most upsetting part is that this team right now is just miserable to watch and tough to feel good about. Even through Wanny and Walt’s down years there were points of light: Shady, the WRs under Harris, the occasional upset to lift spirits.
This team is just not enjoyable to be a fan of. We can’t rally around the QB (to say the least), the defense is vanilla at best, and the coaching decisions are mind boggling.
That’s why last week was such a kick in the $#%& because it finally looked as if there was a glimmer of hope, a reason to feel good. And, as usual, splat. Last night was more of just a “pull open the curtains” moment to show what this team really is.
I’ve officially moved on to basketball season.

After some early season struggles scoring due to transfer QB Danny O’Brien of Maryland not performing to well. Wisconsin’s offense has been rolling since week 4. And a healthy dose of bad Big 10 defenses doesn’t hurt either.

Why fire Pederson? Because he has presided over and bungled his way through the following: Wannstadt, Heygood, Graham, Chryst. Not counting the interims.
Because when your revenue producing sport plays in front of thousands of empty seats each week and you lie about attendance you reveal your identity. Here is a clue. You know what liars do? They lie.
A birdie at the Pete last night said one reason why Anderson was leaving was because Cyanide Steve is too difficult.
The damn band director is is infected by this clown.
Cyanide Steve is the CEO of the athletic department. No independent Board of Directors would keep him.
Again I ask:who among us donates to Pitt because Cyanide Steve inspires them to do so?
Ask Amy N how easy her job is because of the follies of this fool.

Yelling at the players helps Only the one yelling! Coaching and motivating the athletes MIGHT lead to WINNING. Permit me to be blunt. Pitt had a “screamer” last season. He also was a “snake oil salesman”. We heard words like:
high octane, impact, explosive” in reference to our player.(Except, of course in reference to #12. The present coach seems CALM on the sidelines. Reports indicate he is a mite frustrated in the locker room. I applaud that, in many respects. Pitt now has an extented time to prepare for a Rutgers team that smashed “mighty ARMY today. I really feel the Panthers MUST try a new QB and I’m not suggesting burning Voytik’s redshirt. I would recommend that Trey Anderson be awarded an opportunity to start because of his loyalty and(buckle tour seatbelts matey’s) that # 28==Gonzalez be allowed to platy QB in the wildcat. It is also OBVIOUS to me that our left tackle is not up to the job. Why not try Shane Johnson at guard and put Jacobson and Doakes on the left side on the offensive line. You football strategists might scoff, but what do we have to lose? Another trip to Birmingham??? Rev. George from Columbus

pitt will beat rutgers , matter fact,alot of entertaining posts,this is ateam of individuals , a boat load of injuries,to a already thin group with absoutely no respect to the opportunity given them,i really don’t think its comprehendable to this group.

Untill he proves outher wise and it is on him
chryst is a joke.
what has he done not a thing that i can see wanny
did better.look at are last game the players werent ready to play.
it is the responsibility of the coach to motivat players to play hard every game and chryst has failed miserably on that this is per the cardic hill but i do think they are right.

I guess coaches think Pitt can still get to 6 wins and a bowl so they will change nothing. But if we lose to Rutgers and no new QB plays against USF, what can we do or say but drink more heavily, curse louder, etc?

Best comment above: “This team is just not enjoyable to be a fan of”….This season was over after YSU dominated and beat us at home…With every passing week, the firing of DW looks worse…Not to worry SP haters, if Chryst does not turn this around next season he will be gone and SP will be gone with him….Good to hear from you Rev George.

20 days, 8 quarters and a few hours until we are rid of Tino forever. For those of you that think we will beat Rutgers, I feel truly sorry for you as Pitt has NO chance at all.

What utter mysticism does Tino have over this and the other coaching staffs. I mean they have the stats. Not one comeback ever in 3 years if we are down. Only one long bomb connected on in 3 years and about 57 misses. Tino does the Statue…but not the “of Liberty”! I mean we could fill a book with his blunders. However “pump faking to the open receiver” is by far the most apt description.

Tom Savage will make us all forget Tino and I think he will. The only similarity will be the initials T.S.

Sumlin is winning right away with someone else’s players. Now that’s the mark of a good coach. A good coach can coach anyone’s players be they ones he recruited or not. And continual boneheaded calls and horrible clock management is a sign of a guy who might be good in the booth but not on the field. Since the final decision is not on you in the booth.

Maybe he should coach from the booth as the OC and let someone else make the decisions on the field. Cause they are decisions some kid playing Madden NFL would make better.

Also maybe bring in a motivating halftime speaker to fire them up,this team usually is flatter than a door to start the 2nd half. The beginnings of games aren’t too good either usually.

this season was a washout as soon as Tino was named starter. the only 2 people who had faith in Tiny were PC and Tiny himself. Tiny’s dad wouldn’t ever play him if he were coach. Let me know when spring practices start – I’ll be busy watching hoops til then. At least Tino has played hard though all of his allergy problems this year. One of the Pitt doctors told me he has very serious allergies – he’s allergic to open receivers. Symptoms include confusion, bad decision making, shaking under pressure, throwing teammates under the bus, falling down easy, and poor throwing mechanics. Just 2 games til the end of the Tino era! The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to show!

I’ll 2nd that. Everyone does realize that we will pound Rutgers because that’s just how this stuff happens. Even better though tino’s 1st comeback win will be over USF to clinch one final game for himself. That should be awful thought for everyone. The football Gods will not allow Tino to play only 2 more game, not for us not for Pitt.

Emil – Who would you like to see Pitt go with at HC? From reading your criticisms of PC, whoever this person is would have to go undefeated, win every game big and with style, and have a top 5 recruiting class in their first year.

JoeD – You want M. Stoops. What about him makes you know he’ll be an excellent game manager immediately and will pull in those top 5 recruiting classes starting year one?

Just like PC, stoops has never been a HC so no one knows what he can do and I’m guessing he’d make some mistakes his first year. Which means he’d immediately need fired according to Emel.

Call me crazy but I think it’s easier for a coach to recruit kids to Arizona and FSU than it is at Pitt, would you agree? So maybe instead Pitt needed to find a coach from a school that’s shown success without getting top 5 talent each year. And last I saw PC did some great things at WI, equally, if not more impressive than what MS has done at AZ and FSU.

The standard I do think Pitt should set before hiring any football HC is requiring a couple years previous HC experience. That allows them to get a better idea of how they’ll manage.

Oh, those who feel Chris Dokish has some incredible college football knowledge. He wanted Mike Leach instead of PC. Take a read at ESPN main page, WSU top receiver leaving team citing abuse from HC.

Leach also has them at 2-7 this year, has lost his team, has a lower recruiting class than Pitt, and now has been called an abuser in his last two jobs. Yep, he would have been the perfect coach to turn things around…………

Monday & Tuesday I had a killer tooth ache (I’m gonna have to have 2 teeth pulled!)…Wednesday and Thursday I had a killer sinus headache…Friday night I acted like a madman screaming and yelling at my TV for the first half of the game…my wife thought I was gonna have a stroke…at halftime I logged on to The Blather and started reading the comments and LMAO!…at that point all of the stress and aggravation of the previous week was gone and I felt pretty damn good…Pitt football and The Blather, the cure for what ails you!…

By the way…all may not be lost for us next year in the ACC…I see the best record in our new division is 6 and 4 overall and the best divisional record is 5 and 5!…

@ Leaseman, toothaches, sinus headaches, even sticking yourself in the eye with a fork, mere child’s play when compared to remaining a dedicated Pitt Panther football fan.
Why, because we understand how to take a round house kick to the nuts without even flinching, that’s why!

Now, how I’m going to get my masochistic fix next season with my beloved Tino Sunseri no longer there to provide my angst, I have no idea. Maybe a well placed Black Cat fircracker dropped in my pants on gameday might bring back those fond memories of watching Tino patiently waiting to be dropped in the backfield by the opposing defensive lineman without ever taking an avoiding footstep will suffice. Aaaaah, the memories.

Good luck with the extractions Leaseman. Remember to ask for Vicodin ES instead of the regular strength Vicodin. Provides much better pain relief.

I was happy when Wanny was fired, he had his chance. If I knew they were going to hire the boneheads they have since he left ( I can’t remember all their names) I would have offered Wanny a lifetime contract. Pederson has something on someone in the Pitt Administration. How else can you explain him not being fired.

Just to be sure, the Twitter posts I mentioned above were mostly just anecdotal stuff. To be honest, I’d always rather have a coach who is more reserved and keeps calm under pressure.

I’ve mentioned this before in discussions about Chryst’s demeanor. I think when things go bad, fans tend to get frustrated and angry. I think when fans tend to see the coach not doing the same, it only lends to the frustration of the fans – whether there’s the assumption that maybe the coach isn’t seeing the same thing the fans are seeing, or that the coach doesn’t care as much or whatever.

I can remember being embarrassed watching Jim Leavitt turn into a fire-breathing maniac on the sidelines for USF, and I don’t think it was ever a coincidence that his teams always fell apart in big moments. He never looked like he had control in the face of adversity, so why would his players?

Ditto for Brian Kelly. I know some Irish fans who absolutely despise his charades on the sidelines, and they think he’s a bully. Same for Bo Pelini in Nebraska.

Those three are probably extreme examples, and I think you need to have some balance. Rev. George, you even brought up a great less-extreme example with Todd Graham, who had more than his share of sideline meltdowns last year (can’t say I blame him in some respects). And Wannstedt as well. As much as I liked the guy, I hated the notion that within the national consciousness of college football, Wannstedt was best known for something like this:

I thought the same exact thing about Leach when that news broke yesterday.

I respect Dokish’s opinion and I know that’s the guy – or kind of guy – that he championed for during the coaching search. He said he wanted Pitt to take a shot at a big-time name, and Leach was the one he always mentioned.

Pitt was never going to hire Leach, though…not after taking a gamble with a maverick personality like Graham and getting burned (even if some of that may have been self-inflicted). If they were going to go the “previous head coaching” route during Coaching Search Part II, I think the guy they wanted was Cristobal.

The three guys I would’ve loved to have seen were Chryst, Cristobal or Sumlin. The reality is that they were fighting an uphill battle for the latter two. Some of the names that were being tossed around weren’t coming to Pitt unless Pitt made it worth their while to do so, and as we saw with Graham and his staff, even going that route guaranteed nothing.

The thing I always liked about Chryst was exactly what you mentioned – the ability to work with and build systems around players who may not exactly be higher-profile recruits. He did that as an OC. Whether he can oversee that same sort of thing from a head coaching position remains to be seen, but that’s an issue that would’ve existed with anyone getting their first crack at being a head coach.

Looks like my prediction of 4-6 wins is coming true. Unfortunately we will be on the low side.
The road to recovery starts with firing Pederson. Then hire an AD with a track record of success in hiring head coaches. I was thinking of the Cincinnati AD but he has moved on to Illinois. Then they need to quit being cheap. They are getting a huge increase in TV money in moving to the ACC. If they don’t start spending the money to hire a real head coach and real assistants then they are just thieves.

look, i agree that Paul Chryst has not set the world on fire in his debut season as head coach, but i am not laying all the blame on just him. I think he inherited a lot of lame duck players that we need to be patient for them to move on. The upperclassmen have been through a lot, and i am sure some of them are ready to move on as well. so i urge us to withhold judgment on Chryst for at least another year or two. He is not the one on the field making the plays, and right now he has a qb who is limiting him on the plays that he can call. So brighter days are ahead, I simply watch them now with no expectations cause with a loser at QB we can’t be winners!

FRANKCAN – I believe they did contact Petersen and he said not interested, could they have offered him 20 mill/ yr, sure, but that’s not realistic. But I do think RichRod would have been a good hire but I feel Pederson’s ego and mybe some boosters wouldn’t allow it.

I was ok with PC being hired. He wasn’t my first choice but that doesn’t matter since I wasn’t doing the hiring. I was a fan of going with Luke Fickell. My thoughts were he had some experience as a HC, knows the area for recruiting, was very successful at developing players and putting top D’s on the field, and with Tressel out of the way maybe we could have hired a number of their assistant coaches.

If they wanted to make a splash, go hire Tressel and wait out the suspension but we all know Pitt wasn’t going to go there.

The meltdown in the first half against the Huskies in hindsight was not a surprise if the team had even a quarter of the difficulty putting the N.D. game behind them that we did. Cripes we were still focusing on the N.D. game on Thursday when one of you reminded us that Pitt ways playing U. Conn. the next day. I know, D1 football players are with the help of their coaches supposed to put it all behind them and play their best in the next game. It rarely works that way even among the most elite teams and the most elite coaches. Exhibit A: Alabama. Some seem to be blaming P.C. Had the one missed field goal in overtime at South Bend been good, some of us would be crowing that P.C. is the new Bear Bryant. I think I’m using this post to remind myself (and hopefully the rest of us) that it will take at least 3 years to see if H.C.P.C. is a successful h.c. I think I’ll either light my hair on fire now and put it out with a tack hammer or go get a blankie and some warm milk. H.T.P.

burgh 1972 they did offer petersen i knew that but they offered 2 million they should have offered 4 million then he would have come.

and as for dick rod i know why they dident but just think if they had

1 it would have been a huge slap in WVU face i would have loved that
2 they could have got him kind of cheap a million and a half.
3 he would still be here and we would not have going thru all this shit he was a expercend head coach
4 we would have benn playing more exciting football rember at the time most wanted the spred
and he knew and loved the area and knew the high school coachs just saying the AD FUCK UP AGEIN.

Saban was 3-8 his first year at LSU and his head was being called for. HCPC has been handicapped with a young and not very talented team. I was really disappointed (and surprised) that they lost to UConn, but I still feel HCPC will turn the program around.

Someone tell this kid to stop being a little bitch. He plays on a high quality team that has the potential to go deep into the postseason. He’s going on social media to rant and cause problems. Dixon gave him a free ride and this is how he thanks him. It’s D-1, get over it JJ, you’re not good enough to get minutes. Transfer if you want a starting role.

Happy to hear Chryst unloaded on the team — and hope he directed due attention to Tino’s crap passing. The team is beat down but can still rally if a change is made…namely, Anderson gets a shot. If it doesn’t work, bring Tino back in for the second half…what’s the downside? As someone pointed out, it could serve to motivate Tino to pick it up and if Anderson plays well, could get some spirit back into the team and fan base. Truly cannot see a downside to it.

Strategically I have very little complaint with Chryst’s effort this year and appreciate his being more on the agressive side. I think he will be a good head coach, more in the vein of Walt than Wanny, but needs to learn like everyone else. My only concern was why he stuck with Tino for so long — at least he’s not given to panic, but one really wonders how this kid has survived so many shaky moments and keeps getting trotted out there.

Emil – Who would you like to see Pitt go with at HC? From reading your criticisms of PC, whoever this person is would have to go undefeated, win every game big and with style, and have a top 5 recruiting class in their first year.
Comment by burgh1972 11.11.12 @ 6:58 am

I don’t think you read all my posts burgh1972. I’m not calling for PC to be fired, as that would only make us look more foolish as a University than Stevie Cornhole has already made us look.

All of my comments are just observations. Of course I didn’t expect PC to go undefeated, lol.
My pre-season prediction (which btw was on the low end here on the blog) was 7-5. Which I think all of us would take now in a heartbeat. How could anyone think we would go undefeated with Sir Tino at QB. (really)

To your other point of winning big games. No, what I expect a good HC to do is beat the teams your supposed to beat. Namely this year, that group would include a D2 team (Youngstown State) a middling team, that we’ve owned (Syracuse) and a lousy team (Uconn). That would put us at 7-3, bowl eligible already with 2 games to play. I think near everyone would have been very happy with that. Is thinking that we should have beaten these 3 dreg teams wrong ?

Your 3rd point, about recruiting and specifically a Top 5 class. Again no, lol. As we have never had a Top 5 class, as far as I know, even back in 1979 or 1980. So thinking we’ll ever have a Top 5 class now in todays college landscape is laughable. My point about recruiting, in a previous post,was that it takes several years of good classes (unless you go the JUCO route) to get to the point we were in circa 2008-2009. And that we’ve had 2 mediocre or less classes and this would be our 3rd unless we get a couple of these stud kids late. And I then mentioned PC better gets some better recruiters on the staff pronto if we ever are to see 10 wins again. If he can get a Top 20 class here and there and Top 35 otherwise, that would his maxed out ceiling. Again I don’t think any of this is extreme, do you ?

Since I don’t know what era you’re from and what your expectations of Pitt football are, I’ll leave it at that. However I do agree with your last stmt, that we should require several years of HC experience before hiring a HC. I never like be waited on at stores, restaurants, wherever by on the job trainees. That’s just me !

Anyway we all want the same thing, I’d just like to see PITT relevant again in my lifetime for more than just one year(2009) over a span of 30 years. For I don’t know if they have High Def in Heaven.

Saban was 3-8 his first year at LSU and his head was being called for. HCPC has been handicapped with a young and not very talented team. I was really disappointed (and surprised) that they lost to UConn, but I still feel HCPC will turn the program around.

Comment by markp 11.11.12 @ 6:02 pm

I don’t know where you got your info but Saban went 8-4 and won the Peach Bowl his First Season at LSU and in the Top 25.

Additionally there is no comparison to be made even had he gone 3-8 his first season at LSU
Saban had had some success and experience before LSU hired him. First at Toledo where he went 9-2 in one season as Head Coach and then as Head Coach at Michigan State where he turned a perennial loser into a decent team that in his last season got a New Years Day Bowl game.

If you think this team is not talented, next year and the following years team is going to be less talented. Other than at QB, naturally.

As we will have a better QB, (how could we not) but will that QB have anybody to throw to, as Shanahan, Saddler and H. Graham all graduate. And there is talk Street will leave early if it’s indicated the NFL will draft him. Meaning the only returning receivers with any catches will be 2 TE’s. And they caught less than 12 passes between them.

And your ONLY game breaker on offense is graduating, that would be the Ray Ray.

Plus while the O-line is no great shakes, the 2 best on it on graduating as well. (jacobson & turnley) Any newbies are just this, questions marks.

On Defense, Holly & Tags are gone too. The rest are back. So it will be the same talent as this year. Whether that is good or bad is this ; just another question mark.

And next year we’re going to be counting on a freshmen PlaceKicker named Blewitt for those crucial FG’s.

So if you think this year’s team is not very talented, it’s the most talent PC is going to see until he recruits some. (see Foster, Johnson & Boyd)

Hiring PC was not a mistake…Hiring TG was. He had track record for doing exactly what he did to us. If you have to “convince” someone to take a job that pays $2M per year, and requires passion and commitment it is probably not a good sign.

The Texas A & M QB is barely 6’1″ tall and listed as 200 lbs. Both are a big stretch. Johnny Manziel is more like barely 6 feet, maybe 190 lbs wringing wet. Sounds like someone I know. Don’t believe Johnny Football won the 5A Texas State championship though.

Meaning small QB’s like him and he’s a leading Heisman Candidate as a Freshman can be successful in D1. And they should he able to more easily avoid the rush of these giant obese players with their quicker feet and smaller frames. Just like a Point Guard can easily scoot around some guy much larger than him in basketball. (see Joe Montana)

P.S. For those of you who don’t know, Joe Montana played Point Guard in HS, I know cause I played against him. lol

@AJ
Asking Steve Pederson to improve the football experience is a lesson in futility. He is the engineer of this train wreck of a program.
Empty seats followed by announcements of higher attendance; being played for a fool by Haywood, then Graham and then the adminsitration playing us, the buyers as fools, by letting everyone responsible for the disaster stay in their jobs.
Firing Wanny is one thing: treating him like shit is unacceptable, but he did that to Solich too.
At least Nebraska admitted their mistake.
Pitt athletic fundrasing is somewhere between 1965 and 1974.
Next to nothing and going nowhere fast.
Pederson doesn’t create revenue, he costs us money.
Him staying in his job tells you what Nordenberg really thinks of athletics.
Nordy would not let this malaise sink into any other university department, but he relishes in sucking in football.
Have you noticed the low profile of Pederson this year.
there is only one plausible explanation…..Pederson has got to have pictures of somebody…was Petraus at Pitt over the last 2 years?

Stevie needs to go. He is a piss poor fundraiser. Has alienated alums and boosters. Has a poor track record in hiring coaches. And, is just a plain old douchebag. Pitt will wallow in mediocrity until he is removed. He is the second coming of Bozik.

Any time this team has any adversity on the field, mainly falling behind, they pretty much pack it in. Oh you can score a few TD’s if you’re way behind as opponents drop into prevent defenses and are willing to let you nickel and dime your way down the field in exchange for time off the clock. But they are more mercy td’s than anything else. Anytime they want they can dial up the defense, apply some pressure, tighten the screws and invariably Sir Tino will fold, and therefore the offense folds.

Or they just pack it in altogether and why not, they know they have absolutely no chance to come back.

My mistake on Saban’s first year at LSU, I misread when he started, DiNardo had the 3-8 record. Thanks for pointing that out and thanks for pointing out that Saban’s only loosing record came as a HC in the pros. Both he and PC had to live with some of the previous mistakes of DW and management in their 1st year!
My point on talent is that HCPC can be criticized for some of his coaching (learning) moves, but the talent level has to lower due to the instability of the coaches that have been hired/fired. I would like to see him him succeed.

However Saban won in his first year at Miami Dolphins after Wanny left. It was his 2nd year that he had a losing season.

And like I posted, PC has more talent on this team than he’s going to have the next several years as we lost the TOP 20 class Wanny had recruited before he was booted for Baby Daddy, he of the one year HC’ing experience. So that class that Graham assembled was average at best, as was one PC assembled when he got hired and the current one is as well unless he gets Foster, Johnson and the Clairton kid.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and some of the kids will get better as they develop. Who knows !

And maybe PC will get better with in game decisions, again who knows !

If they don’t do something or get better, it will be more a matter of…..Who Cares !

I can see it now…Pitt 2013 Sun Belt Champs. We could play in the Superdome in the Wyndom Hotels New Orleans Bowl. We would dominate fierce rivals like the North Texas Mean Green and the UL Ragin’ Cajuns. Maybe we could even bring back Wanny.

It’s not too late to leave the ACC. We might all need to go to Western Psych if we go to the ACC.

I’ll be able to witness more of these meltdowns in person, being here in the middle of ACC country.

Luckily nobody down here follows BigLeast football so they don’t know how horrendous we’ve become.

Here’s the latest from the Trib, with a classic quote from Sir Tino:

But he completed less than half of his passes (10 for 22 for 161 yards)in the first three quarters before Connecticut loosened it’s coverage in the fourth. Sunseri hit 9 of 12 for 141 yards in the final 15 minutes, leading a rally that fell short.

“We have to be crisper in our protection” he said.
“We have to be crisper in our routes”. We have to be crisper throwing the ball downfield as an offensive unit.”

Wrong, we have to be CRISPER throwing the ball downfield as the QUARTERBACK !

Today’s word has been crisper. Sir Tino just learned it over the weekend on Sesame Street. lol

My experience in background checks is that affairs are discovered during the due dilgence phase.
Did the FBI let this one go as the “general” was already on the inside (I guess he was “inside” now wasn’t he).
Perhaps Steve Pederson was part of the investigative team enlisted.
If two people know something, it isn’t a secret, especially when clothes are on the floor.

its tino time its tino time tino gives us the best chance to win tino gives us the best chance to win.WTF WTF WTF HOW CAN HE PULL THE WOOL OVER 3 COACHS EYES.
I dont belive it i never will thank god it is all most over.
dont double pump to the open recever
street was poen all day.
we need to be crisper WTF.

For thoes that care mark myers in 9 games has thrown for 2953 yd and 25 TD
and missed one game when hurt or would have 3000 yd.
i know it is div 3 but thoes are div 3 WR he is throwing to and div 3 OL men he is playing behind
so not a bad year.
and for thoes that say he cant throw short a lot of the TD WERE FOR 10 YD AS WELL AS OVER 60 .

Myers could throw short, that was a ridiculous excuse somebody came up with as a reason why he never got a shot. 3000 yards and 25 TD is good regardless. Kenny Anderson and Dave Kreig both were All-Pro NFL QB’s from D-3. Not saying Myers is but it shows that you can still be a quality player, even an NFL All-Pro coming out of D-3.

He mustn’t had been that impressed with PC or he would had wanted to be tutored by such an offensive genius.

Gave up the ghost on this season — after nearly three years of this interminable Tino experiment, my spirit is finally broken…Chryst’s not taking him out at halftime of the UConn game just did me in. It’s like watching a drug addict or alcoholic — how many times can you get dissed before you just throw your hands up. Its not just the horrific play in the clutch and cowardly dropping down in the face of danger, its the comments and total fraudulence — and yet the protection from coaches and administration. If that doesn’t spell something rotten in Denmark, he is the luckiest college athlete I’ve ever heard of.

the horrid pg writer for pitt wrote that there was no one behind sunseri, yet myers leaves and performs well, how do we know what talent we truly have unless they are given the opportunity to show themselves. by now we all know tino gets bullshit stats that come from his receivers and running backs making plays, yet lacks any true talent and leadership on the field. i am for even putting trey in for at least 2 games just to give him some game experience. what at this point does tino give us other than frustration and a bunch of gray hairs. and all those stevie p haters, well he doesn’t play on gameday, so i am tired of hearing for his resignation/firing.

@ Emel again, 1st Dave Havern, now your name dropping includes Wayne Adams. I’m surprised a guy as old as you still has such an intact longterm memory. LOL! Poor, poor Wanye Adams, led to the slaughter like a Christian to the Lion’s den in ancient Rome, never to be heard from again.

Adams ONLY actual in game performance made Tino’s demeanor under pressure look calm and collected by comparision. Where’s Tom Yewcic when you need him.

Emel, of course you realize that most any Panther fan under the age of 40 probably has no idea of who the hell we’re talking about here. Take care my good old Panther Faithful friend. Keep up with the gingo biloba and omega 3 fatty acid fish oil capsules to maintain that sharp memory of yours.

I just read a quote from Coach Chryst,“You shouldn’t have to be coaching effort at any point, certainly (not) late in the year”.

WOW, Really? I guess that might be the case at the professional level that Chryst has coached at, or maybe even at the college level as well, IF the team is loaded with stellar recruits 2 deep at every position and has a solid current winning tradition like Wisconsin’s program was when Chryst left. Teams such as those have a “winners attitude” already instilled in the players. The old saying, “winning begets winning”. But this is Pitt 2012 that we are talking about here.

College football players are just kids. Many of these kids haven’t matured enough by college to even have a concept of what their potential is, both mentally as well as physically. IMO, at the college level, it IS the coaches responsibility to “coach effort”, because many young athletes really do not yet know what their effort potential even is yet.

Football is an emotional sport. The mindset of the overall team and each individual’s confidence level on that team can influence the effort put forth by those athletes for the team. The Head Coach is responsible for getting that process firing on all cylinders.

IMO, in light of the above quote, The UCONN loss sits right in the lap of Coach Chryst! He didn’t have this team emotionally prepared to play football on Friday, and coaching THAT part of the game is just as important as being an expert at the Xs & Os of the game.

I still think Chryst was the right choice for the job, and was the best REALISTIC candidate to fit the program here. As much as I dislike Graham, the fact is that he was, and still is, considered a top-level hire. You can’t really blame Steve P. for how that worked out – getting him was a real coup at the time, and IMO going to a spread is still not the worst idea in the world – just not with Fraud running it.

As far as this year, I do like PCs more balanced offensive schemes, and the potential there is obvious. However, I really don’t think much of Huxtable’s defense at all – big changes needed there IMO. I hated that bend-don’t-break crap when Rhodes was here too – never saw the advantage to it at all.

Unfortunately, we are seeing a lack of effort or emotion on the field at times, but no one should be surprised. The leaders on this team are still Wannstedts guys, and it’s the same lack of passion we saw when he was here. That’s the culture Wanny cultivated, and why he needed to go. I think we’ll see that change over the next couple of years. Yes, coaches can do what they can to try to get the best out of players, but at the end of the day, if they aren’t self-motivated to a large degree, then they shouldn’t be playing D-I football. It’s the same for any college kid studying any subject – it’s not a profs job to make them interested in studying. If they aren’t already motivated enough to do the work, then they don’t belong in college. The same goes for football.

Having said that, though, I wouldn’t mind seeing Chryst being a bit more animated on the sidelines sometimes. I like an even-keeled approach, but sometimes a coach does need to get fired-up a little to get the team going.

@SteveS
So true. Pure logic won’t cut it. On occasion a leader must show some passion or his team won’t think he really cares. Eisenhower was once asked when did he get angry. His response was “when he needed to” (whether he really felt that way or not).

Pretty obvious that Chryst came into his first year as a Head Coach with an idealistic approach toward how to carry out out the job.

Based on his comments throughout the season it seems he really wanted to do it differently by treating players like good sons who can be counted on to respond to encouragement and take the initiative to do the right thing.

Think Chryst may be learning that might work with some but not all. As a coach, you inherit all kinds of kids, some functional, some dysfunctional, regardless of their abilities on the football field.

Some kids coming from less than the perfect home encironment and others who’ve been spoiled rotten as a result of the their success in sports… can at times require a little more.

Hopefully, Chryst is learning some players simply cannot be counted on to “self-motivate” for each and every game.